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Uduimoh Umolu consistently wants to bring ideas to life. As a full-time entrepreneur and business owner who simultaneously runs a creative design studio and a sales production company, his days are long and his roles multifaceted. However, the bigger picture is always in sight. The bottom line is important to every thriving business, but the experience and essence of a brand beyond its product are what make it memorable. Simply put, Umolu envisions something that will outlast himself.
“But legacy comes with time,” he says.
His first name, Uduimoh, means “he who has patience and perseverance”—two characteristics that he is learning to better embrace as cofounder and CEO of Basíl
Chicago Spirits.
A child of Ghanaian immigrants, Umolu grew up in Rogers Park and was keenly aware of the diversity of his environment. After spending a few of his school years in Ghana, Umolu returned to Chicago, where he graduated from Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center and studied advertising at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In addition to his studies, Umolu became enthusiastic about the business of parties on campus. Inspired by how his peers gathered socially, he and a few classmates created Mouve, an app that invited students to share social experiences in an engaging way.
“In Champaign, I realized that business is my sport,” Umolu says. “I’ve always viewed things from a brand-marketing and storytelling side, with an emphasis on a consumer’s experience.”
Long before Instagram and Snapchat, Mouve aggregated user content by geolocation, allowing his peers to build connections digitally. While the app didn’t take off as he and his cofounders had hoped, it did teach Umolu the importance of risk-taking and the power of community.
His career led him to work in different industries, including technology and events management and production, all here in Chicago. In 2015, after Umolu had spent three years as a tech consultant, he and cofounder and business partner Belall Taher got back into the business of celebration by creating Jon Basíl, a tequila for the millennial generation.
“I’m often thinking beyond the actual business of tequila,” Umolu says. “I want to establish a brand with its own world, feeling, and experience. And that brand world itself is very vast and colorful.”
Jon Basíl Tequila is made in Jalisco, Mexico, from 100 percent blue agave. The name “Jon” honors Umolu’s grandfather, and “Basíl” is the name of his dad’s godfather and mentor, who played a role in helping him come to America from Ghana. In 2018, the brand officially launched its blanco tequila—the traditional twice-distilled, unaged expression, which showcases the agave plant. Shortly after that, its reposado expression debuted—which is the blanco tequila aged in whiskey barrels for nine to 11 months. In 2020, Jon Basíl landed its biggest partnership, debuting in seven Binny’s locations. With expansion came attention, specifically from the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, putting the cofounders on a national stage. However, the pandemic prompted supply challenges that Umolu and Taher weren’t expecting.
“We ran out of product,” Umolu recalls. “We would have been off to the races, but we ran out. The amount of product that we allocated for that year specifically was gone in a month.”
Challenges like this would cause any business owner to panic; Umolu knew he had to get creative and go digital in order to keep the brand alive.
“Through those storms, you gotta stay level,” he says. “Sometimes you get antsy and want to make rash decisions, but I had to keep reminding myself that it is a process, and patience is key to what we ultimately want to do.”
Jon Basíl Tequila
Available across Chicagoland
jonbasiltequila.com
And that time and energy paid off. Jon Basíl Tequila has continued to expand and recently introduced a third expression: añejo. Aged in Jack Daniels whiskey barrels for 23 months, the añejo offers richer, more complex flavors with a very smooth finish.
Credit: Courtesy Jon Basíl Tequila
“While I’m not of Mexican descent, launching Jon Basíl allowed me to understand the cultural nuances of tequila and its connection to where I grew up,” Umolu says. “The brand not only represents our story but so many of the folks in our community who are connected to it. Living in Rogers Park, we went to school with so many different kinds of people—Indian, Mexican, Caribbean, West African, descendants of Black families from the south. From Clark to Devon to Howard, it was clear that our neighborhood was a melting pot of cultures, and we all learned from, grew with, and helped each other.”
Umolu doesn’t take for granted the sacrifices his parents made moving from Ghana to build a life for him and his siblings. It’s that sacrifice that serves as constant motivation to build a business that will benefit future generations.
“And that’s kinda why we started Jon Basíl,” Umolu says. “In my mind, you hustle for your last name first.”
Chicago is undoubtedly one of the foundational pillars of the brand and has strongly supported its growth over the years. Local staples like Nobody’s Darling, the now closed Kimbark Beverage Shoppe, Logan Liquors, and West Loop restaurant Eleven Eleven were early adopters. Today, Jon Basíl Tequila is available in more than 300 Binny’s locations and in several independent wine and spirits stores across Chicagoland.
“I’m often thinking beyond the actual business of tequila. I want to establish a brand with its own world, feeling, and experience.”
Last month, Jon Basíl also hosted the first installment of the Supper Club, a thoughtfully curated dinner experience, to celebrate its fifth anniversary and the launch of añejo. Umolu wants to host more of these gatherings, spotlighting local chefs, mixologists, and business owners.
“Experiences are the ethos of our brand,” Umolu says, “and the Supper Club is an opportunity for us to intimately say thank you to our supporters. Community and creation are baked into everything we do. No one can replicate the essence of who we are.”
While the work of a boss is never done, Umolu is determined to keep building a good team and delegate more so that he has more time to bring new ideas to life.
“At some point, you gotta start creating, and I want to be free enough to make dope shit.”
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